Buchan Airfield area, once to be a subdivision for Movieland and Broadway stars, is today a home to aviation enthisiasts, who can park the airplanes at their home and tazi out to the nearby grass
runway. Photo by Sam Harris
Englewood’s Hollywood Connection
Written by Diana Harris
At the height of the Great Florida Land Boom, in the roaring
1920s, Englewood came close to becoming a colony to the stars.
Land was selling so fast it made your head swim. Everybody wanted
a piece of sunshiny Florida including show biz people.
In the early 1920s the Sarasota Herald had this to report: “A goodly
portion of Broadway’s most shining stars are heading south for
real estate investments and even Olympiads of Hollywood, California
have begun to trickle in.” The newspaper stated a theatrical
colony was going to be established at Hygeia, a large real estate development
in Englewood. Producers, authors, managers, newspaper
men had already purchased land and the latest exciting news
was, “two illustrious stars of Movieland,” Douglas Fairbanks and
Mary Pickford had joined the land buyers. The Hygeia subdivision
was filed for the record April 21, 1925. The land today is Buchan
Airfield. Although the name Hygeia was from Greek mythology,
the buildings were to be drawn from old Spanish designs and all
the streets in the subdivision were to be Native American names.
Going east and west were to be avenues named after tribes, going
north and south were to be four drives named after famous chiefs.
The only remaining street in use today is Osceola Drive, which
borders Buchan Field on the south.
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Well, we never became a colony to the stars but as early as the 1930s
we know Hollywood film crews were filming scenes for some Tarzan
serials or movies in our area. MGM filmmakers passed off the wild
looking jungle along the banks of the Myakka River, probably near
Snook Haven, as Africa.
Over the years, interestingly enough, we have also had several very
well-known celebrities putting down roots and living amongst us
part time.
I suppose one of the attractions is we respect their space and don’t
go camping on their doorsteps. Dan Rowan, one of the stars of the
wildly popular “Laugh In” TV show had a house on Manasota Key
for many years. He once told me one reason he liked Englewood
was nobody ever asked him for his autograph. “You know,” he said,
“I don’t think most people even know who I am because instead of
watching TV at night everybody seems to play poker or go snook
fishing and shrimping.”
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